Supernatural powers, akara economics and other headlines – is Nigeria the banana republic of the 21st century?
By Lilian Onoh
From reading the news out of Nigeria, it seems that Nigeria’s leaders are determined to disgrace Nigeria; and in lieu of the World Cup, give us the trophy of the banana republic of the 21st Century.
In the past few days, the following headlines have come up:
Anambra State charged one Lazarus Igwe Friday with the crimes of, “Use of supernatural powers… propagated the accumulation of wealth by supernatural means other than by any known lawful means of livelihood…and pretext to wield/have supernatural powers to prepare Okeite for people, contrary to… the Anambra State Homeland and Security Law, 2025”
Now, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that these charges nullify each other. One claims that this Igwe person used supernatural powers and propagated the accumulation of wealth through supernatural powers; but conversely, the same supernatural powers he used is a “pretext”, which became a separate criminal charge. In other words, he used supernatural powers, but in actuality, only pretended to use supernatural powers and did not use supernatural powers and therefore did not commit an offence. No metric was used to gauge the use or efficacy of the supernatural powers to establish the offence.
One would think that a functional person with the requisite authority would have sacked whoever drafted the charges immediately. Alas, No.
Meanwhile, shortly thereafter, the Oba of Benin ordered traditionalists across Edo South Senatorial Zone to “deploy ‘spiritual warfare’ and lay curses on perpetrators of banditry and other violent crimes. He gave the directive…during a meeting with native doctors, priests and priestesses at his palace in Benin.” (Realnews, 24th June 2026).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) disseminated the news – i.e. propagation of the use of spiritual powers to take over the functions of the Nigerian Police and Security Agencies and execute extra-judicial sanctions against bandits and other criminals. NAN has not been charged. Neither has the Oba or his native doctors, priests and priestesses been arrested or charged with an offence.
So, in the space of a week, an Oba is hailed for use of supernatural powers to fight the bandits and criminals who make it impossible for anybody to make an honest living safely, whilst two states away, Lazarus Igwe, who I understand is also a native doctor, was arrested and charged for propagating the use of the same supernatural powers to create wealth which will likely end up in the hands of the bandits and criminals that the Oba is trying to eradicate with supernatural powers too!
Imagine the dispatches sent to various global capitals by the foreign diplomats in Abuja and Lagos! Nonsense is nonsense.
Not to be outdone, the First Lady of Nigeria decided to help Nigeria along its backward path to prehistoric times. In a viral press conference held after she gave some women N50,000 each as business capital, she said: “We’re trying to give hope. To start akara business doesn’t take a lot of money. To start roasting corn…somebody even said about kuli-kuli doesn’t take much. We’ve encouraged Nigerians as best we could. What is within our hands we have given.”
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Nnenna Oti: When integrity makes all the difference
In 2026, the best hope that she can offer Nigeria’s teeming young women, many with amazing academic qualifications that would dwarf hers, is not to join the technological revolution but rather, it is to go out to plant corn on farmland occupied by terrorists masquerading as herdsmen. If they don’t die between planting and harvest, they should then roast corn on the roadside for others like themselves, with no livelihood, to buy.
N50,000 is less than the cost of a bag of rice. But a few months back, she gave away brand new cars costing hundreds of millions of Naira to APC women leaders across the country who produce nothing.
However, in 2026, Nigeria’s young women are looking beyond being known only as the spouse of a powerful leader and are instead looking up to such icons as WTO D-G, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala; Namibian President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah; Wendy Okolo, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington who also works as a NASA research engineer; Award winning author, Chimamanda Adichie and a host of amazing women across the globe that are famous for their own achievements.
Some youths know that as far back as 1969, Golda Meir led Israel, even through the 1973 Yom Kippur War and that Prime Minister Indira Ghandi led India; Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike led Sri Lanka twice; Chancellor Angela Merkel led Germany for 16 years; Japan is led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi; Kamala Harris is the immediate past U.S. Vice President; Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson led Liberia. There is no shortage of formidable women who have excelled globally, including the black female mathematicians behind NASA’s success in the Space Race.
Whilst other countries are trying to create research laboratories for the best and brightest minds to innovate and compete with the rest of the world, the best vision of the APC is to give handouts to Nigerian women with advice to return them to the dark ages. Why are her children not selling akara or kuli-kuli or roasting corn on the roadside?
The First Lady also claimed that she “gave N2 billion to TB …and gave N1 billion to breast cancer.” Neither TB nor breast cancer is a corporate entity able to receive money. Did either TB or breast cancer give receipts for these donations? And where did she get all these billions to give to the persons of TB and breast cancer?
Meanwhile, back at her HQ, Aso Rock Villa, the DG of the DSS and the Minister of Information took it upon themselves to ask journalists to downplay or remove reports of banditry and kidnappings from the news outright because it’s bad for the country’s image!
In plain language, the Government wants the continued torment of Leah Sharibu, the Chibok girls, the infants, children and teachers kidnapped in Oyo and other places to be brushed under the carpet and papered over with the wonderful Renewed Hope of Akara Economics.
The truth of criminality, banditry, kidnappings, torture, rape, murder and brutality being endured daily by the citizens is deemed to be less important than fabricating a false image of Kumbaya.
In continuation of the trend of covering up bad news that is inconvenient for the Government to deal with, Bayo Onanuga, the loudest Villa Vuvuzela, decided to show Nigerians that he can outdo Daniel Bwala of the Mehdi Hassan interview notoriety, any day, any time.
He told the world and the starving citizens of Nigeria, the new Poverty Capital of the world, that the reports about the hardship suffered by Nigerians were exaggerated and that, “I don’t see the level of hunger people are talking about…”
To break it down in simple terms for the blind Onanuga, the official monthly minimum wage in Nigeria is N70,000, equivalent to $50.
Petrol costs N1,400 –N1,500 a litre – equivalent to N6,000 a gallon or $4.30 a gallon. Here in Texas, USA, a gallon of petrol is currently $2.97, i.e. N4,455 per gallon. The minimum wage for a federal employee is $15 per hour or $2,400.00 (N3,600,000.00) per month. Let these numbers sink in.
This is the simple price/income comparison that Bayo Onanuga does not see but every single Nigerian experiences daily. One day, when he is out of office, his eyes will finally see.
In continuation of the Government policy of burying any unpleasant story, the Plateau State SSS decided to further showcase the jungle republic of Nigeria when it continued the same pattern of burying the victim to recreate reality and absolve itself of its duty to protect citizens. The story was: “SSS arrests former Plateau NBA chairman, Gabriel Tsenyen over WhatsApp publication alleging that members of his community were plotting to kill him…”
Gabriel Tsenyen, a lawyer felt threatened enough to cry out that his life is in danger. Instead of the Nigerian Police protecting Mr. Tsenyen whilst investigating the allegation, the State Security Services (SSS) arrested him for “causing annoyance, inconvenience, ill will and needless anxiety.”
The person who felt anxious enough about his safety to cry out was suddenly a perpetrator who was arrested because his cry of fear caused those he was afraid of to feel anxious! Does this make sense to anybody?
We are at the point where speaking out against any form of injustice is essentially to sign your own death warrant. Only the Cashtivists survive.
When Barnabass Igwe criticised Gov. Mbadinuju for owing teachers and other public servants their salaries for months and closing down schools in Anambra State, he was brutally murdered with his pregnant wife, Amaka. The person identified by them as leading the murderers is part of the administration prosecuting the supernatural powers saga in Anambra State.
Nigerian leaders have clearly gone beyond the Banana Republic phase and now operate as if this is a Jungle Republic – anything and everything goes and if you don’t like it, you will be arrested.
If there is no existing offence in the criminal code, it will be invented on the spot.
If you die in jail while awaiting trial, you died from pre-existing conditions.
If the DSS locks up teenage girls in the East because they were purportedly looking for their fathers who are purported IPOB members, and these girls get pregnant whilst in detention, the five month pregnancy happened before they were locked up seven months ago.
If a cow goes missing, the DSS and Army will find it. But if terrorists arrive in a convoy of over 200 motorcycles and kidnap school children, church worshippers or villagers, the security forces will be “on it” indefinitely as they have been since 2014 when the Chibok girls went missing.
One must therefore give kudos to the few courageous media practitioners that refuse to kowtow – those who still publish the truth and permit unknown columnists to publish their critique of a system that has lost all meaning and hope. They are the true heroes of the Republic.
The government paid $9 million to foreign lobbyists to whitewash Nigeria’s image. It lasted a few weeks and failed. So it demanded that Nigeria’s media practitioners do the work for free. Some charlatans have been settled and have started writing puerile opinions cajoling Nigerians on the need to support the government’s efforts to whitewash Nigeria. Those with integrity have refused the poisoned chalice and continue to publish the truth.
To these courageous few, who sometimes publish at the risk of their own lives and who have to overcome hopelessness daily, Nigeria owes a huge debt of gratitude.
So I end by appealing to the brave practitioners to keep publishing the truth. It matters for Leah Sharibu and the Chibok girls. It matters for Gabriel Tsenyen. It matters for the families of the military officers killed, the children and teachers kidnapped in Oyo and Borno, for the teenage girls locked up in lieu of their fathers in the East and impregnated. It matters for the families of Barnabass and Amaka Igwe, Gideon Akaluka and Deborah Samuel. It matters for every victim of Boko Haram in a system where their murderers, rapists and kidnappers are petted, pampered and given laurels for “rehabilitation” whilst they, the victims, have received nothing from the government.
And lastly, it matters for every citizen that needs to know that if they too fall into the hands of the kidnappers, terrorists, DSS, killed extra-judicially by the Police or charged with spurious offences, their plight will not be buried by the media because it is an inconvenient truth for the government.
